March 14

March 14 is the 74th day of the year, and the American record for it runs from 1780 to 2006 — a span of 226 years. The entry that anchors it: The body of U.S. President John F. Kennedy is moved to a permanent burial place at Arlington National Cemetery, 1967.

In the years around independence, the date turns political. In 1780, American Revolutionary War — Spanish forces capture Fort Charlotte in Mobile, Alabama, the last British frontier post capable of threatening New Orleans.

In the first half of the twentieth century the date turns technological. In 1900, the Gold Standard Act is ratified, placing the United States currency on the gold standard. Three years on, in 1903, Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge, the first national wildlife refuge in the US, is established by President Theodore Roosevelt. Then, in 1945, the Royal Air Force first used the Grand Slam, a 22,000 lb (10,000 kg) earthquake bomb, on a strategic railway viaduct in Bielefeld, Germany.

The postwar entries show a nation both expanding and contesting itself. In 1964, Jack Ruby is convicted of killing Lee Harvey Oswald, the assassin who had shot and killed John F. Kennedy the previous year. Three years on, in 1967, the body of U.S. President John F. Kennedy is moved to a permanent burial place at Arlington National Cemetery. Six years on, in 1973, Vietnam War — after having been captured by North Vietnamese forces five and a half years earlier, U.S. Navy pilot John McCain was released with 108 other prisoners of war.

Closer to the present, the date is still accumulating. In 2006, Operation Bringing Home the Goods — Israeli troops raid an American-supervised Palestinian prison in Jericho to capture six Palestinian prisoners, including PFLP chief Ahmad Sa'adat.

The date is also a birthday. Among the Americans born on March 14: James Bogardus (1800), American inventor and architect; Joseph P. Bradley (1813), American lawyer and jurist; Lucy Hobbs Taylor (1833), American dentist and educator; Charles Ammi Cutter (1837), American librarian; and Thomas R. Marshall (1854), American lawyer and politician, 28th Vice President of the United States of America.

March 14 is also a date of endings. Among the Americans who died on it: George Eastman (1932), American inventor and businessman, founded Eastman Kodak; Frederick Jackson Turner (1932), American historian; Marion Jones Farquhar (1965), American tennis player; and Ben Shahn (1969), Lithuanian-American painter, illustrator, and educator.

The date carries formal observance as well — Steak and Blowjob Day, a satirical unofficial holiday created in the United States as a male response to Valentine's Day. March 14 carries 8 entries spread across 226 years. None of the people in them knew they were sharing a date; that is a pattern only visible looking back.